The mission will also provide further insight into the origins and evolution of asteroids and comets, which formed the ancient building blocks of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago, according to NASA. “The Chelyabinsk event drew widespread attention to what more needs to be done to detect even larger asteroids before they strike our planet,” Johnson said. The picture was taken about a minute after the house-sized asteroid streaked through Earth’s atmosphere. This image shows the vapor trail of the Chelyabinsk meteor on Feb.
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In 2013, a house-sized asteroid blew apart over Chelyabinsk, Russia, just 14 miles above the ground, generating the energy equivalent of around 440,000 tons of TNT and a shock wave that stretched over 200 square miles, left over 1,600 people injured, blew out windows and damaged buildings. James Webb telescope: Stunning new look at 'Pillars of Creation,' the birthplace of young stars More asteroid news: NASA's DART spacecraft successfully crashes into asteroid in first planetary defense test “Ground-based telescopes remain essential for us to continually watch the skies, but a space-based infrared observatory is the ultimate high ground that will enable NASA’s planetary defense strategy,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer. Are we threatened by asteroids?Īccording to NASA, no known NEO poses a significant risk of impacting Earth in the next 100 years, but unknown NEOs could. The telescope, set to launch no earlier than June 2028, will be able to find NEOs within a decade of launch. The telescope is transitioning into the final design and fabrication phase and establishing its technical, cost, and schedule baseline, NASA said in a statement last month. When will the NEO Surveyor telescope be ready? In this illustration showing NEO Surveyor, NASA's next-generation near-Earth object hunter, the spacecraft floats in an infrared starfield containing stars, star clusters, gas, and dust.
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